From 1935, a British company began producing a machine to make cigarettes that incorporated the filter tip, and so the Bunzl family developed their British interests. Following the Anschluss in 1938, with many Jewish assets and companies seized by the Nazi regime, the Bunzl family emigrated from Austria. While some moved to the United States and Switzerland, the majority settled in England to developed their small British operation.

1940 - 1957

The company now known as Bunzl was established in the UK in 1940 by Austrianimmigrants Martin, Hugo and George Bunzl under the name Tissue Papers Limited, which adopted a similar line of business, manufacturing filters along with tissue and crêpe paper. The firm did not begin to grow substantially until after World War II, when the family reclaimed its assets in Austria. Although the two companies were not merged at this time, Tissue Papers Ltd. became the international distributor of Bunzl & Biach's paper and pulp products and as a result changed its name to Bunzl Pulp & Paper Ltd. in 1952.

International expansion followed throughout the 1950s: a filter production factory was opened in South Africa, while a separately-run company named American Filtrona was set up in the United States in 1954. Use of cigarette filters increased markedly in the 1950s as links between smoking and cancer were established, and Bunzl soon became the exclusive supplier to both Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher Group. Between 1956 and 1964, Bunzl's production of filters increased by a factor of twelve.

1957 - 1980: Public listing and diversification

The company floated around 30% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange in 1957, with the Bunzl family retaining a majority stake for another decade. As the growth in uptake of filter cigarettes began to tail off at the end of the 1960s, the firm's profits followed, experiencing their first fall as a publicly traded company in 1969. Around the same time, Bunzl Pulp & Paper's position in the cigarette filter market was investigated by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission at the request of Courtaulds, which Bunzl had recently dropped as its supplier of cellulose acetate. Although ultimately Bunzl was found to have held but not abused a monopolistic position, the company determined to diversify its products to revive profit growth.

In 1970 the original Austrian business Bunzl & Biach was acquired, meaning that the company was now involved in the manufacture of paper for the first time, and adhesive tape and plastics divisions were also established later in the decade. The strategy failed to stem declining profits in the long term, which were exacerbated by a smaller cigarette filter market as tobacco companies began to manufacture them in-house. A foray into data processing services also proved particularly unsuccessful, losing money for the company.

1980 onwards: distribution

At the beginning of the 1980s, the company embarked upon a new strategy to arrest a decline in its fortunes. A new chief executive, James White, was installed, and Bunzl & Biach AG and its associated paper mills were sold only a decade after becoming a part of the company. Bunzl began to move into the distribution sector by acquisition, beginning with the American plastic and paper products reseller Jersey Paper in 1981. Other business lines established included package delivery and foodservice.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the outsourcing and distribution businesses in the US, Europe and Australia expanded, particularly in the area of disposablefood packaging. This growth helped the company enter the FTSE 100 for the first time in October 1986, replacing financial services group British & Commonwealth Holdings. At the same time, the company sold off a number of non-core and underperforming assets, a process accelerated under the guidance of Anthony Habgood, who replaced White as CEO in 1991. Foodservice, paper merchanting and building material supply businesses were all divested by 1994. The company's plastics and fibres interests were also consolidated with the purchase of American Filtrona, the company originally established by the Bunzl family, for $178 million in 1997.

Bunzl's last link with the paper industry was severed in 2002 with the sale of its fine paper distribution arm. This left the company with just two remaining business divisions: Outsourcing Services and Filtrona (encompassing fibres, cigarette filters and plastics). Three years later, Filtrona was spun-off as a stand-alone entity, leaving Bunzl with just its distribution business. The same year, former Goodyear Dunlop executive Michael Roney was appointed CEO, with Habgood becoming Chairman.